maskormenacelogs | [open] The New Improved Tomorrow

[They need to start over. With Barry moving in (and not even saying hello to her), Harrison's housemate for a month can't be feeling very at home. It's his fault, he'd been the one keeping her at a distance, but a young, friendly girl showing up right after Jesse had disappeared on him had been a little too much for him to gracefully handle. But it's been a month now, they've said 'Hi' to each other periodically and very little else, Sunset Shimmer (hippie parents?) has been keeping a respectful distance, and with Tina moving in and essentially forcing a house meeting by yelling about pervs in the kitchen, they can start over.

That's what Harrison is thinking when he wanders into the kitchen in the morning, focused almost entirely on getting coffee, and trips over the doorframe, because there's an animal in the kitchen. There's a small yellow and red pony in the kitchen, sitting at the table like it belongs there. It has a tiny unicorn horn. And little wings. And there's a mug in front of it. Being float-stirred by a spoon.]

What the hell.

[The first few days of August were certainly...something. It started out normal enough, but since the arrival of their newest housemates, things suddenly took a turn for the less than normal. Not that there's ever really been a normal for Sunset Shimmer, it comes with the territory of being a magical talking pony.

So she decided, ever since figuring out the right magic to tap into to turn into her original self, that today will be a pony day for...well, reasons. Sometimes you feel like being a human, other days it's nice being back to having hooves and a mane and a horn. The wings are still something to get used to, but when she keeps them folded up on her back it's like they're not even there.

She's settled down at the kitchen table, having helped herself to a cup of coffee, stirring milk and sugar, and she was just about to telekinetically bring a book she left on the counter over when...Harrison trips into the kitchen. She stops stirring her coffee, and the book falls back onto the counter, precariously close to the edge.

Oh...right. They've spent so little time getting to know one another that...maybe seeing a pony in the kitchen would be a bit of a shock. Sunset smiles awkwardly, raising her hoof in a wave.]

...Good morning.

[Yeah. So. That's a voice he knows, coming from a pony. A talking pony should be even more confusing, but somehow that makes it a little better. Enough that he can push himself back to his feet, brushing himself off and heading straight for the coffee pot. Which. She must have made. How exactly someone with no hands succeeds in making coffee, especially good coffee, is not a question he's going to ask before he's had any of it.

He pours a cup, leans against the counter, drinks it even though it's a little too hot, and vague gestures at all of her. So, what's the deal there? Is this a new development or just something he'd managed to overlook for an entire month?

Had he really been that much inside his own head?]

Morning. You look different.

I mean, this is how I normally looked. Or well, used to look.

[She does a little pony shrug, and she's back to using her telekinesis now that things have settled, bringing the cup up to take her own sip. She makes a bit of a face, and two sugar cubes are procured from wherever they're kept in this house and travel to her mug in the same, sparkly, telekinetic way before being dropped in her mug.

And it's back to stirring. She might have made it a bit to strong.]

I probably should have warned you before wandering around the house like this.

[They text fairly regularly, but after Barry and Tina had moved in, it had occurred to Harrison that it had been a few weeks since he'd seen Caitlin in person. Unusual. She'd been coming by regularly to sit in his null field and get a break from her empathy abilities. It's been a useful way to practice that power without broadcasting too much that he can put a damper on anyone just by standing near them. And given that the garage lab is getting an overhaul and the house isn't exactly peaceful right now, Harrison decides a walk is just what he needs.

He doesn't bother to call first, or he doesn't think of it. It's getting toward lunchtime when he knocks on her door with a couple sandwiches in hand. She's made him eat often enough, and he's better at remembering now thanks to the constant reminders. Might as well pay it back.]

[ She's been home just short of a week, and in that span of time, she hasn't seen anyone. It's a small blessing, given that she isn't really in any shape to have visitors or anything close to being good company face-to-face. From mid-July to now has been a blur: the foiled robbery at the restaurant, then getting hurt in Philadelphia. (Caitlin's done her very level best not to think of just how badly she'd been hurt, how serious her condition had been.) The time alone has given her time to let her mind settle.

She's a little surprised when someone knocks at her door; she hasn't ordered any lunch yet and work knows that she'll be out for a while. ] Just a moment!

[ It's a long moment since she carefully removes herself from the nest she's made on the couch. Every movement hurts, even with the immobilizer holding her arm and shoulder steady. She makes a mental note to take some of her pain killers after she sees who's at her door.

She's already talking as she opens the door. ] Can I help — Harrison?

Snow, I— [Harrison has already taken a breath to explain paying back the various times she's just dropped a sandwich in front of him, but seeing her draws him up short. His hands come up to steady her automatically, but he hesitates short of touching her, he's not sure how without possibly hurting her.] Caitlin? My god, what happened?

[Immediately, the suspicion that Hunter had visited her leaps, snarling, into his mind, but no, Hunter didn't want Caitlin hurt. He settles for resting a hand gingerly on her shoulder, where it probably won't hurt, and he can at least save her from feeling the depth of his sudden concern.] What happened?

[ She almost asks (demands) to know what he's doing there, as if the reverse doesn't happen with much more frequency. But she isn't that rude, even with her emotions worn thin and her tolerance for anything that isn't sleeping when she can nearly gone. A quick bit of mental math gives her the answer to her unasked question: it's been a couple weeks at least since she's visited him.

Caitlin wants to pull away from his touch, not because it hurts and not because she doesn't want the relief from the constant barrage of emotions. It's purely self-conscious; his presence reminds her just how long it's been since she's taken a shower and how long it's been since she's bothered to change her clothes. ] I was in Philadelphia. I was helping with triage when I found Leonard Snart with his leg pinned by some debris. I got down so I could help him and...

[ She trails off and shrugs, immediately wincing at the movement. ] He said a wall fell on me.

You were in Philadelphia. [It's a little absent thanks to his concern, and he's going to do this as gingerly as he can but step back, Caitlin, get inside so he can close the door and set the bag down and focus on her entirely.]

Caitlin. I didn't know you were there, I...I was there trying to help with my team, or my... [His assortment of people who had also been recruited by Qubit, but it doesn't matter right now, what matters is that she'd been there and if he'd known, maybe he could have kept this from happening.]

[ She steps back to let him in, leaving him to close the door. Since he has two good arms. (Never mind that he's currently using one to nullify her power.) When he sets the bag down, she settles back on the couch, clumsily moving her blankets and things out of the way so he can sit too. ]

I didn't realize you had joined a team. [ Caitlin really hadn't known, and yet, she doesn't sound surprised. She remembers when he was the Flash, when he was convinced that he'd had superspeed all along and had been a hero all along. He seemed... happier. More relaxed. Hopefully this venture would have the same effect. ] Even if you knew, there's probably nothing you could have done to prevent this. It's a big city, there was chaos everywhere. If it hadn't been me, it would have been someone else.

[Harrison had spent most of July training hard at controlling gravity: increasing it, decreasing it, flipping from one to the other, small areas, large areas, you name it, he's been trying to make it happen. But always at the back of his mind is Hunter Zolomon. It's all well and good to make a bowling ball float across a soccer field and then hit the grass so heavily it goes into the turf, but the ways he can use his powers against speedsters are still vital.

Which is what had led to the gravity trap idea: an area of almost-zero gravity leading into an area of 3x gravity, invisible in the road. Which means, if his calculations are right, a speedster hitting that low gravity should lose contact with the road entirely, and then hit it again hard once he flies forward into the high gravity. In theory.

Once they're established, Harrison can maintain his little patchwork gravitational fields without much trouble, and he's working in the garage with the door up, listening for the distant crackling lightning of the Flash. It doesn't actually occur to him that another speedster might hit it first.]

Edited 2016-08-04 22:23 (UTC)

[Max, by default of habit, tends to wear his costume when he intends to actually run. He rarely piles the speed on when he's in normal clothes, and the time to change is negligible.

He's still working his way back to form, between getting shot and then pushing it in Philadelphia, when he goes for today's run.

Cutting through Heropa, he decides to go through the street the imPort housing is on.

He has a steady gait, Max isn't clumsy in the least-

and then suddenly something is very wrong with gravity. Max rockets up and forward, suddenly lighter than he should be, before everything comes slamming down harder than, again, it should.

An inexperienced speedster would be eating asphalt right now.

Instead, Max just looks extremely ungainly in high-speed, his arms shooting forward and spinning just fast enough to provide just enough lift that he skids onto his boots before sagging from how weighed down he suddenly feels.

The middle of an open road was one of the last places he was expecting some kind of trap.]

[He looks up just in time to see a speedster hit the low-grav/hi-grav combo just the way he'd planned, and there's a split second when he's smiling, because it's always nice to see an experiment turn out the way you'd predicted.

Except. That's not Barry, and it isn't Zoom either. Harrison knocks over his stool in his haste to get out to the street, waving a hand to dissipate both gravitational fields and restore the area to normal 1xEarth gravity. And it would be a polite gesture to reach out and steady the man, but considering that would take away whatever abilities he has, speed among them, better that he doesn't.]

That wasn't meant for you. You all right? Wow, that really worked though.

[Max straightens up as everything returns to normal, in time to see another man approach.

He adjusts his footing and takes a few steps, now that it isn't taking every ounce of effort he has to stand.]

I'm fine. That was yours?

Who was it meant to catch?

Barry. Allen. He offered to help me test them.

[Had he known he'd be helping test them today though, that's the question. But that's not important. Clearly they work, even if his test subject is someone new.]

Harrison Wells. I'd shake your hand, but whatever you can do, you won't be able to do.

[That's also not...an apology. Science was happening, there's no apologies for science.]

@hooffaceturn

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@trigeminalheadache

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@guruofspeed

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By the soccer field...

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In the garage

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